Roberto De Zerbi has only been at Tottenham for a matter of weeks, but has still already seen six new injuries in his squad.
This afternoon saw Spurs take a decisive step in the direction of relegation survival as Roberto De Zerbi’s side managed to snatch all three points in their 1-0 win at the Mollineux, thus ending a winless streak which reached all the way back to last year.
Joao Palhinha’s deft finish in the 83rd minute ended up being the difference maker between the two sides but the proceedings in the West Midlands gave Spurs fans as much hope as it did things to worry about.
Tottenham add Solanke and Simons to growing injury list
Roberto De Zerbi would have preferred to make no forced substitutions but if he had made any pleas they certainly fell on deaf ears as Dominic Solanke pulled up with a hamstring injury in the 40th minute.
Until that moment Solanke was actually putting in a solid performance but the English striker pulled out of a challenge in the middle of the pitch, was unable to continue and had to be substituted for Richarlison.
If Solanke had been the only casualty of the afternoon perhaps, with backup options at striker available to Roberto De Zerbi in Richarlison and Kolo Muani, Spurs fan could have swallowed the bitter news ever so sweetened by a hard fought victory.
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But when it rains it pours at Tottenham and in the 63rd minute Xavi Simons who was chasing down a loose ball, seemed to have misplaced his foot and went down in a whole lot of pain, gripping his knee. He was quickly tended to by the medical staff and, as Simons seemed hell bent on continuing, allowed him back on the pitch.
Xavi was unable to run off the injury and he collapsed dramatically by the touchline only to be stretchered off the pitch.
In his press conference after the game Roberto De Zerbi gave the following updates regarding the newest additions to Spurs’ injury list:
“For Xavi it is a problem of his knee. We go to see in the next days. Monday or Tuesday. For Solanke it is not a big problem. I don’t know how many games we lose him but I would like to know the situation with Xavi because the knee is always different than the muscular injury. (…) He felt pain. Now I spoke to him two, three minutes ago. He feels better than the beginning of the injury.”
Tottenham fans can only hope that the two players won’t be kept out for too long as Spurs will need all the fire power they can get to try and avoid relegation.
Results elsewhere did not exactly go Spurs’ way either…
West Ham’s home win against Everton, which keeps the gap between Spurs and West and the Hammers at two points, might make some in the fanbase feel like Spurs are actually worse off than they started.
When can we expect Spurs players to return?
Spurs are still of course missing the services of James Maddison who was sat on the bench today. Roberto De Zerbi confirmed Maddison is not fully fit yet after suffering a small setback during the week but hopefully his time on the sidelines is coming to an end quickly.
Pape Matar Sarr was unavailable to play after suffering a shoulder injury and De Zerbi will probably provide us with further information during his press conference ahead of the trip to Villa Park.
Destiny Udogie and Guglielmo Vicario are both set to return back to training this week, with De Zerbi hopeful they could be ready for the clash against Villa.